


Caution

by nvzumii



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Andreil, Andrew Minyard Has Feelings, Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post Baltimore Andreil, Small mention of Drake, Soft Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard, Tiny Angst, nothing graphic or bad just letting u know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-11 14:06:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19929295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nvzumii/pseuds/nvzumii
Summary: He knows staying here is breaking every rule he's ever set for himself, every wall he's built up to protect his fragile interior. But Neil's hands feel sogood. Everything Neil has given him feels so good. A fresh of breath air. Like the iron grip Drake—even dead—has around his throat is finally starting to break off.





	Caution

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place immediately following the events at Baltimore. I thought of this idea one night and had to get it out of my system because soft Andrew showing his feelings is what keeps me going.

Alone time is sparse for college couples to begin with. Add living ten feet from the most obnoxious, curious teammates on the planet and it's completely out of the question(it's a little easier when you have an empty dorm to go back to as Dan and Matt always find the girl's dorm conveniently vacant). Andrew always finds a way to pull Neil alone anywhere from bustling team gatherings to night practices with only Kevin around as a witness.

Right now is different, however. The air is tense. Andrew only wants to get Neil alone to take him away from everyone's pitying stares. 

They haven't kept their eyes off of him since he arrived back at the hotel room bloodied and beaten beyond the point of recogniton. Even the bus ride home from Baltimore unwavering eyes stare at the two but stop at the mercy of Andrew's unwavering glare as he kept his hand loosely twined with Neil's.

Andrew feels the unsettling presence around the team. Anyone would be a fool not to pick up on it. When Dan speaks up, Andrew barely registers the sound of her voice--He's fighting his own battles at the moment and listening to team captain Dan isn't on his agenda.

Dan says something about how everyone should get some rest and take tomorrow off from practicing to which Coach is reluctant but agrees, understanding the trauma that's just been thrown at all of them. It adds an uncomfortable weight to everyone's already heavy shoulders. A burden none of them asked for.

The Foxes make their way to Fox Tower in complete silence. Andrew stays behind the group next to Neil, not a care in the world that the rest of his teammates have probably figured the two out by now.

Everyone goes to their respective rooms for the most part and return with various items from snacks to movies. 

"What's all this about?" Nicky gestures between Renee and Allison who have piles of pillows stuffed in their arms.

"Team sleepover," Dan replies, arms hooked around Matt's waist as if in doing so she'll be shielded from the horrors of what she now knows of Neil and Kevin's families.

"No." Aaron takes the words right out of Andrew's mouth and it has him question if twin telepathy really is a thing or if the two of them could give less of a shit about spending the night on the scratchy carpet when perfectly good empty matresses are down the hall waiting for them. 

He knows they're doing it for Neil's sake but it doesn't change the way his eyes glaze over as if he were someplace else. He wants to be here even less than Andrew and that's saying something.

"Yes." Kevin says, hands now on Aaron's shoulders to keep him from bolting.

Everyone stares in disbelief at him like they don't actually believe Kevin would be agreeing with Dan's "suggestion". Andrew wants to call him out on his bluff but settles for the usual raised eyebrow and disapproving stare.

Andrew dares a glance beyond Kevin while the team hashes it out and immediately regrets it the moment hazel meets blue. Crumbles under the weight of the silent conversation the pair share. He doesn't want to cause a scene but knows he needs alone time away from all of this. Neil needs it more.

His chair screeches behind him, all conversation falling silent. "Yes." He repeats, leaving the room before anyone can ask where he's going.

He's only halfway to the stairwell when he hears a voice call after him.

"Told them you were going for a smoke," Neil says, shutting the door behind him.

Only it doesn't sound like Neil. This voice is too carefully calculated, caution hidden behind each word. This is the voice Neil uses when he's on the run. When he talks to people out of necessity because he's run out of all other options. This isn't the Neil he knows.

But he can't blame him for it.

"I also told everyone I was getting more pillows from your room." He holds up a key ring up for Andrew to see. Four strides and he's snatching the keys from him, fingers fidgeting as they unlock the door. 

Only now does Andrew notice the patchwork of bruises masking each of Neil's knuckles in a purplish film. The matching gauze adorning his face is no doubt hiding a similar shade underneath it, rendering Andrew's own browning bruises to mere scratches. The tired lines under his eyes have darkened with sleepless nights more so than Andrew's and he can't help but take a moment to let that all sink in.

For the first time in Neil's presence, Andrew is entirely speechless.

"Grab your pillows." Neil says as he exits the bedroom with the same blank stare as before, pupils blown wide. Lips parted and downturned. "Where are you going?" Andrew doesn't waste any time. Simply continues to tread further into the dorm knowing Neil will follow. 

"Come." Andrew replies sharply.

"Where?" Neil says, stubborn as ever.

"Get your ass in this bathroom right now Neil or so help me I will—"

"Coming, coming!"

"Up." Andrew points to the countertop, eyes fixed on Neil's arms, at how they flinch under the pressure of pulling himself so his rump sits just far enough from the sink he won't sit in it as if they were to break as easy as twigs.

Andrew inhales loud and sharp. Neil stares at him, doe-eyed. "Andrew," he starts.

He ignores him, presses his index finger to the bow of Neil's lip. "Shh," Andrew hooks his fingers under the curve of Neil's jaw, tightening his grip until he jerks his head away wincing.

Neil blinks a few times, confused and in pain but stays quiet.

Andrew seizes Neil's chin again, this time bringing his other hand to rest just under the scars already forming along his cheekbone. He hesitates a moment, gliding his thumb over the sealed gashes with a newfound gentleness. He feels his heart twitch at how little contact pains Neil, causes his grip to tighten around the countertop and eyes to brim with tears he wouldn't be caught dead letting fall in front of Andrew or anyone for that matter.

"Andrew," Neil takes in Andrew's knit brows, how they scrunch even further as he examines his face with foreign tentativeness. How his own hands now sit limp in his lap, fingers too sore to knit together.

"We could have lost you," Andrew hesitates. Swallows dry. Whispers. "I--could have lost you."

Neil hears him loud and clear. Andrew knows this without having a second thought. "You didn't." he reminds him.

Andrew shakes his head, body rigid at the mere thought of losing him. "I could have." he speaks up, and then he steals a glance at the man sitting atop his bathroom counter with a cautious stare.

Neil's grows increasingly tense at the sight of clouded hazel eyes staring into his. He doesn't know why Andrew's entire demeanor has shifted within their arrival back to campus or why he's here with Neil, hands carefully searching every curve of his face as if he might uncover a new bruise or scratch to add to the tally already etched into his brain.

"You didn't." He repeats, completely ignoring Andrew's strict boundaries as he hooks two fingers under his chin, tilting his head. "Look at me."

Andrew obeys, eyes following Neil's directed pull upward. He wants to turn away, scream and yell, leave the bathroom cursing Neil out for his thumbs that now caress his cheeks but Andrew's hands stay glued to his sides, unable to tear his eyes from Neil. 

The intimacy of this moment is enough to send Andrew fleeing to the nearest bottle of liquor, downing the entire thing until he no longer feels his face. It's unlike anything he's ever experienced, anything he's ever allowed himself the pleasure of even remotely calling his. 

He knows staying here is breaking every rule he's ever set for himself, every wall he's built up to protect his fragile interior. But Neil's hands feel so _good_. Everything Neil has given him feels so good. A fresh of breath air. Like the iron grip Drake—even dead—has around his throat is finally starting to break off. 

The fact being in excruciating pain doesn't stop Neil from pressing the pads of his fingers into the back of Andrew's neck is enough to send his every last wall crumbling to ash.

He doesn't want to admit it, but he knows this casual thing between the two of them is molding into something deeper. Something he doesn't want but knows is inevitable, unavoidable. Because falling for Neil Josten was inevitable.

Even bruised and beaten, Andrew still thinks Neil is the most beautiful man he's ever had the pleasure of looking at, the most beautiful lips he's ever has the pleasure of kissing.

"I'm not going anywhere," Neil says, eyes shimmering with something unreadable—lust? truthfulness? Andrew nearly melts into Neil with the tenderness of his every word. His heart pounds deeply within his chest, painful almost. It makes his ears go red and his stomach lurch forward.

For the first time in almost twelve years, Andrew is starting to understand what it means to be loved.

Lust is the only emotion other than anger and annoyance he's ever known. It's why he didn't mind the feeling of Neil's cigarette tinged lips on his or his hot wet tongue sliding effortlessly into his mouth for the first time up on the roof. Andrew certainly didn't mind the feeling of his lips retreating lower on Neil's abdomen, hands eagerly learning every scar and burn permanently singed into his skin.

He didn't mind these things because it's all he's ever really known. Love, however, is something he's never been acquainted to. Something he never allowed himself to get near. Because he didn't know what love truly meant, only the rotted and twisted version of it he's been shown since he was little. 

Now standing here, hands cradling Neil's face, taking in the extent of the damage done to him. The realization that he could have been killed, that talking to him in the locker room could have been the last time he ever saw him guts him like no other, he finally understands. 

Love is selfless and kind. It isn't force and manipulation. It gives your stomach the feeling of dancing on clouds, feeling completely weightless, not like forty pounds have been added to your legs and you can barely stand let alone breathe. 

And right now, here with Neil, the man who has so willingly and openly shown affection toward him, he gets why people believe in fate bringing two people together. Understands that he would do anything for him, travel to the ends of the worlds. Because Neil Josten came into his life for a reason. He isn't ever planning to let him out of it. 

Andrew sucks in a shaky breath hands now resting under the bandages along Neil's cheekbones, and presses their foreheads together with such force he's amazed neither of them pull away to cradle the now forming lumps.

"Kiss me." Neil whispers with a heavy, lustful mouth.

"Tell me no." Andrew's lips curve into a devilish grin. He doesn't miss the way Neil's eyes seem to have a smile of their own, radiating something more than desire.

Neil stares for a moment, admiring Andrew's features this close up. "Not gonna." He smiles and leans forward until their mouths are reacquainted for the first time since before Baltimore. 

And it feels so good. Like seeing a friend for the first time in years. It sends butterflies racing through his abdomen with a fury unmatched by any other.

This thing between them, this fragile relationship built on broken souls and bruised hearts has soared above any and all cautions. True, the two of them together is a recipe bent straight for hell, but it's that same fire burning within each of them that ignites the first spark of something real. 

They kiss and kiss until Andrew has to pull away, Neil's shirt clenched between white knuckles.

"If anyone ever tries to lay a hand on you again," Andrew starts, angry tears brimming the corners of his eyes.

"You'll what? Get yourself killed?"

Andrew responds without hesitation. "If that's what it takes." 

"Promise me you wont do something stupid to protect me. I don't need protecting." Neil kisses the bruised patch on Andrew's cheek. 

"People do stupid things for the people they care about." and just like that, Andrew realizes the extent of loving for Neil, bruised and all.

"That why you nearly just bit my lip off?" 

"Shut the fuck up. You're ruining the moment." He moves to shove Neil but stops remembering the injuries he's sustained to his sides.

"Make me." Neil whispers and Andrew does with ease, feeling completely weightless.


End file.
